Don’t focus on “making it right” for your customers!

Any and every business will have problems. The damage can range from what Southwest Airlines experienced recently, with 43% of the airline’s schedule delayed by midday, to a solopreneur uncertain of how to run a credit card. Regardless of your situation, you must do what it takes to deliver what your customers have a right to expect — from the flight departing on schedule to handling a transaction without friction.

As I state in my forthcoming book, “The Ultimate Customer Experience,” the first level of customer interaction is “Processing.”

In other words, there are some aspects that are non-negotiable from the customer’s point of view. If you fail to deliver at this first level, none of your other efforts to drive customer retention will succeed.

Customers do not want us to “make it right.” Customers want us to “GET it right!”

For Southwest, keeping the planes moving safely and on time is part of the deal. Certainly, there will be issues out of your command, but passengers understand those. My friend, Mark Sanborn, was delayed for several hours on a flight to Denver on Wednesday afternoon. He wasn’t upset at United — the delay was because of an ice storm at their destination. However, if I’m on the tarmac and can’t take off…